ABSTRACT
Introduction It is a well-established fact that singing in counterpoint was an everyday reality for singers in choirs of cathedral and collegiate churches, or in chapels of princely courts all over Europe, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. Documentary evidence, particularly of archival nature, abounds for this practice. Oral counterpoint was taught to children at an early age, and then practiced daily in the church, most notably-but not only-at certain specific moments of the mass, like the Introit and Alleluia. This practice always involved a group of singers, who gathered around the lectern. Part of the group was supposed to sing the plainchant melody as it was written in the book opened in front of them, while one of the singers was charged with adding a second melodic line, thus creating spontaneously a duo where one should have expected only a chant melody; and sometimes, two, three, or even more singers decided to add their own different melodies upon the chant sung by the rest of the group, thus giving birth to a polyphonic piece of three, four, or even more parts. In Europe, this way of practicing counterpoint with multiple singers adding two or more parts to the plainchant melody was called contrapunto concertado in Spain, contrappunto alla mente in Italy, chant sur le livre in France, and sortisatio in the German speaking countries.1
